Toddler Chicks!

I feel a little bit like a first-time expectant mom must feel after finding out her baby is coming early.  I'm not ready! My bag isn't packed! The nursery isn't ready!  We've gone back and forth a few times on getting peeps vs pullets, and ended up getting what I'm calling "toddlers."  They are three months old, and have been hand reared.  Because we're getting them from a backyard hobbyist instead of a hatchery, it's still possible that one or more may turn out to be male and have to go back to the people we bought them from.  Hobbyists don't bother sexing chicks... they just wait a few months until they hear crowing and know, at that point, they've got a rooster on their hands.  That's actually one of the reasons I went this route. I know that they will be loved and cared-for and not have to worry about finding a new home, or that they'll be used as a food source in that new home.

The black one with her tushie to the camera is a Black Cochin. She'll have fluffy feathers on her legs.  The one with her beak to the camera to the left is a Frizzle Ameracauna.  Her feathers grow curly.  The other two at the top of the frame are also Ameracaunas, but their feathers are flat.  The twins are a buff color, and the Frizzle is a blue-gray.  She looks like a little old lady with a bad perm. None of them were particularly interested in having their picture taken. It was dinner time and they're really busy filling their faces.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, we still have two walls to put in the hen house so they don't fall out at night, and a roost to build.   The nest boxes aren't quite ready yet, but we've got 3 or 4 months before we need those, anyway.  I'm excited and nervous at the same time.  I have done a lot of reading about backyard chicken ranching, but have absolutely zero practical knowledge or skills to rely on.